How can I generate class diagrams from Java code that can be used to create new sequence diagrams

0
votes

Here is what I want to do:

  1. Generate class diagrams

  2. Import/open class diagrams in to a UML editor (e.g. ClassA with method Foo(), and ClassB)

  3. I can then create create new sequence diagrams manually by leveraging the data I imported from the class diagram (e.g. ClassB calls Foo() in ClassA)

How can I accomplish this?

1
javaumlclass-designreverse-engineeringsequence-diagram
Are you looking for "UML Round Trip Engineering"? – S.Lott
What do you mean by "UML Round Trip Engineering"? Do you mean generating the diagrams back in to code? No that is not what I need. Just one way conversion: Java Code -> editable Class Diagram -> create new sequence diagram using Class Diagram data (without retyping the data in). – TERACytE
@TERACytE: "diagrams back in to code? No that is not what I need". Please update the question to be very, very specific on what you need. Please update the question without writing lots of comments. – S.Lott
Tools that support round-trip engineering are what you're after (you don't have to use the whole trip round, of course!) but I've never really found one that I thought was truly satisfactory on a realistic codebase. YMMV of course. – Donal Fellows
And I think you removed a bit too much description; the background text is actually useful as a preamble. – Donal Fellows

1 Answers

1
votes

Enterprise Architect by Sparx can generate sequence diagrams for you, but it means running the code inside the UML tool.

Just about every tool I know of can generate class diagrams for you, of varying fidelity, but sequence diagrams are another animal. You have to tell it where the flows start. I don't see how a tool will read your mind. Doubly so if there's a UI involved. You don't have every JSP in a web app represented as UML, do you? What if you're just using straight HTML pages and no JSPs?

Personally, I don't find sequence diagrams to be all that useful. They lose their value once they exceed a certain level of complexity, as do all diagrams.

UPDATE: If EA is too pricey for you, I'd recommend JUDE (now Astah). The community edition used to be quite good - it even did Java import and diagram generation. Now I see that it's been stripped of that capability. A professional license for Astah is still only $280.